Plurrimi Mortifer Venatus
by EverlastingOblivion
Summary: A year after Sephiroth was destroyed for good Cloud has been attacked by a mysterious force. Tifa hires our two favorite exTurks to investigate this attack, which exposes a plot to bring forth a creature even worse than Sephiroth. Jenova is upon us and th


**_Plurrimi Mortifer Venatus_**

**_Chapter 1: _**

Are You Up To It?

I stared at the ceiling, thoroughly bored. It had been weeks since our last call. I looked over at Rude, expressing my boredom by glaring at him. He merely shrugged off my glare as if to say 's'not my problem'.

"Rude!" I whined, " There's nothing to dooooooo!" 

he shrugged again. I rolled my eyes and leaned back, setting my feet on my desk. I closed my eyes and began to drift of to sleep. All of a sudden the phone rang. I sprung awake and my chair fell backwards, dumping me out onto the floor. I herd Rude chuckle as I got up and grabbed the phone.

"Reno and Rude's Detective Agency" putting on a pleasant voice as I glared at Rude, who seemed amused at my distress. My expression changed to shock when I herd an incoherent Tifa sobbing into the receiver. " Tifa? Tifa calm down…what happened."

"Reno!? Its Cloud…he's…he's" and the rest was drowned out by sobs. I bit my lip and glanced at Rude nervously. He looked up at me interested, seeing the confused alarm on my face.

"Tifa, sober up and tell me what happened," I said, trying to be as soothing as I could, though I was quickly becoming impatient. I didn't like to listen to women cry.

She sniffed then cleared her throat and started over. " Reno, Cloud he's been…attacked. We don't know by who though. He… he might not make it." I looked over at Rude, shocked.

Me and Cloud, we have a rough history as some of you may know. We're not best friends but we're not necessarily enemies. Since Sephiroth's defeat we've pretty much been on the same side. He even helped me and Rude start our detective business. He 'persuaded' Rufus to let us quit the Turks, then helped us set up our office.

So you can imagine I was a bit freaked out. "I'll be right there Tifa" I said and hung up the phone. I looked at Rude and said " it's Cloud. He was attacked by something."

"do you even know where he is?" Rude asked calmly. It took a second for me to register the fact I had no idea where Cloud or Tifa was. 

"ummm oops… I'll just call her back then" I said and chuckled, shrugging off that blow to my ego. I herd him sigh as I picked the phone back up and dialed Tifa. "Hello, Tifa? Hey it's Reno ummm…where exactly will I find you?"

I herd a weak chuckle escape her and she said, "you're an idiot."

"And proud of it. So where are you?"

"The hospital"

"Where?" 

"Well there's only one hospital in all of Edge Reno, you figure it out" she snapped and hung up.

"Temper, temper" I muttered and hung the phone up. Rude glanced at me and I said " there at the hospital."

"Which one" he asked as he moved towards the door.

"That's what I asked" I muttered and followed after him.

XxX

"Tifa?" I called into the room and knocked on the open door. I took a step in and saw her sitting in a chair next to a hospital bed. Cloud was lying entirely motionless, several machines hooked into him, monitoring his vital signs, which for now were stable. I winced when I saw him. He was covered in bloody and infected looking gashes. 

"What in the hell happened here?" I asked, turning my gaze away from Cloud. The empathy pains were making me sick. Rude was standing behind me, still and quite as a statue. To this day that man is still such an enigma even to me.

"I don't know" Tifa said, her voice shaking. " That's why I called you. I want you to find out who did this."

"Do you know where this happened?" I asked, trying to sound as professional as I could. Really most of my detective work had been trailing people around and finding out if spouses were cheating on one another (which nine out of ten times they were), or helping the neighbor's daughter find her cat (which seemed to just love sleeping in our gutters at an angle that is impossible to reach).

She nodded and said, " it happened in the alley right behind our home. I wasn't there but Denzel and Marlene were. You should go ask them." She sniffed again then looked at Cloud. " I want to know who did this…I want to find them and kill them."

I looked at Rude, feeling a bit awkward. I didn't like that psycho bitch vibe Tifa was giving off. " We'll find the culprit, don't you worry bout it doll-face" I said and began nudging Rude towards the door. He complied and shuffled out the door, me following.

As we walked down the hall he gave me an odd look and said, " doll-face?" 

I grinned and chuckled " what? It's complement. She seemed like she needed one." Once I was sure we were out of earshot I looked at him and said, " was it just me or did Tifa seem a little…intense."

He shrugged. "What if it was someone you loved?"

I snorted and crossed my arms. " I don't love people. Now come on. Lets go find Tifa's brats and question them."

XxX

We finally reached Tifa's orphanage/home/bar. Rude and I crawled out of Rude's car, seeing the young boy called Denzel sitting in front of the bar, playing a harmonica. He had a tin can sitting next to him, spare change in it. I walked up towards the bar and looked at Rude. " Leave this to me, I'm great with kids." He leaned back against the car and shrugged while I approached the little brat.

I grinned and dropped 5 gil in his little tin can, " not bad" I said. Really the kid wasn't. he didn't bother to look at me till he had finished the song. 

When he did look up at me he wasn't happy. " What do you want corporate slut" he said bitterly.

I winced, " corporate slut? Now is that any way to speak to your elders?"

"It is when there filthy Shin-Ra whores."

I was impressed by the kid's vocabulary but I wasn't happy that it was directed at me. " Colorful words kid, but you should refrain from cussing in front of people that have been doing it since before you were born. To be quite blunt you're not very good at it. Though I must admit corporate slut is a good one. I digress though, I am an ex-corporate slut kid, you need to keep more up to date."

"Doesn't matter, you were still a Turk" he said coolly. Obviously my char and patience wasn't getting me anywhere. Fine, he wanted a Turk, he'd get one. I grabbed him by the collar and hauled him off the ground. I noticed he'd gotten quite a bit taller since our last rendezvous.

"ex-Turk, but if you want it that way fine. I'd rather be Reno, the guy trying to save Cloud's ass than Reno of the Turks but I can be whoever you want."

He glared at be and struggled. I grinned at him maliciously, thinking he'd give up…boy was I wrong. That little bastard kicked me right in the balls. I dropped him and fell down on the ground. I could hear Rude chuckling as he approached. "Good with kids huh?"

I glared at him and he smirked at me. He walked over to Denzel, who was quite on edge. He glared at Rude, his shoulders tense. Rude looked at him very professionally and said " Hello Denzel, long time no see. I was wondering if we could query you about the night Cloud was attacked. Tifa has hired us to find out."

"Yeah, what he said" I finally managed, staggering to my feet. That was probably the longest paragraph I'd ever heard Rude speak. He wasn't much of a talker. He was a 'gossip-in-the-bathroom-when-no-ones-watching' type guy, he was a 'I'll-talk-to-you-when-I'm-at-the-bar-drunk' type guy, but he typically wasn't much in the way of words other wise. I had known Rude a good portion of my life and I still rarely heard him speak more than necessary.

Denzel still glared at him but then tensely " come in."

XxX

We spent the rest of the day asking Denzel different questions about what has happened. We also asked Marlene and a friend of hers who had been there that night named Tsume. All three had an identical story down to the minute details, so I figured they weren't lying, or they had practiced there story well.

I'd just got done telling Rude about what Marlene had told me when I herd a bell ding, indicating someone had walked into the bar. I looked over and saw a positively exhausted Tifa. She looked over at me an Rude and asked " any luck?" her voice was uncharacteristically quite and shaky.

I nodded. " Aside from getting kicked in the sack by prince charming over there yeah, we're doin' pretty good."

A weak but genuine smile tugged at the corners of her mouth and she gave a feeble chuckle. She shook her head and muttered something about 'what an idiot.'

I frowned and said "hey, that's no way to refer to some one that's helping you."

She looked genuinely alarmed at my joke. I grinned at her to show I was joking and she relaxed a little bit. I saw her pick up a glass of the bar and began cleaning it, even though it wasn't dirty. A nervous habit I supposed. She looked over at the cash register and said " oh, that reminds me, your payment."

Payment? Oh yeah, this was a job. I had entirely forgot I was doing this for profit. Now that she mentioned it though I was contemplating a price. Tracking down someone/thing strong enough to take out Cloud…I wasn't sure how cheap I was going to run that.

"One Thousand gil" I said. She looked at me and nodded. Then I added " per-day."

"what!?" she asked, shocked out of her mind. Then she glared at me angrily. She knew that I knew that was about how much she made a week. She also knew I was a procrastinator and would probably drag this out for months. She looked troubled as she glanced at the cash register then to the glass she was cleaning and nodded. " Fine" she said pathetically.

Wow…I hadn't expected that to work. I had expected a fist to my face, a broken nose, and a thoroughly pissed Tifa screaming that I was a jerk amongst other insults and that I owed her and she shouldn't have to pay me anything.

I herd a sharp beep and glanced at my watch. It was already seven o'clock. I looked down at my stomach; I hadn't eaten all day. It growled and I glanced at Rude. " I guess we should get going" I announced. I grinned at Tifa and said " don't suppose I could have today's pay " because I'm piss poor and hungry.

She looked at me, seeming to catch on. She smiled and said " I have a better idea." What exactly is a better idea than giving me money? "How about instead of paying you I let you stay for dinner. That's what you were gonna spend it on anyway right? So we both win."

"But Tifa we barely have enough to eat as it is" Denzel complained, obviously not happy to see me staying any longer. To be fair I wasn't happy to be hanging around him anymore either.

I looked at Rude, who merely shrugged. I guess that meant eating at Tifa's was acceptable as payment for him.

I probably should have said something nice to Tifa for cooking for us, but being the blatant ass I am I said " Only if it doesn't taste like shit." A normal Tifa would have tossed me outta the bar by my ponytail. This more depressed, angsty Tifa however merely glared and said, " it won't."

XxX

Boy was she right. Get this, she made chicken. I love chicken. Chicken had always been, and still was, my favorite food. I didn't get it often, on the account of it being fairly expensive. Growing up my mom made it on special occasions, when something really good had happened. Maybe that's what made it so special.

I herd Tifa chuckling as I shoved huge chucks of meat into my mouth. I didn't care that I had no table manners. I didn't even bother with utensils; I just grabbed the chicken and ripped apart and shoved it in my mouth. Rude was staring at me, embarrassed. It wasn't that he minded my table manners, or lack of, because it was how I always ate. He was just trying to impress Tifa.

Once we were done eating I muttered "Thanks Tifa. It was actually really good."

"A complement from you? That's rare" she sneered.

"I can be not an ass sometimes. I just chose not to" I said, offended that she thought I couldn't give a regular complement. What did she think I was going to say 'oh thanks Tifa that didn't total suck'? Well maybe I would have said that typically but I wasn't in the mood to harass her. I was feeling oddly content, so I decided not to spoil it.

In fact I had decided to help out with the dishes. I think she almost fainted when I offered to help. When we were alone in the kitchen she asked me " what's with you being so helpful?" she sounded a bit guarded, as if I was up to something.

I gave her a truly puzzled look. Since when had I done anything to make her suspicious of me? Besides murder three of her friends (Biggs, Wedge and Jess were there names I believe), drop the sector seven plate on top of her home, kidnap her friend the flower-girl, and constantly tried to kill over the course of a year. Okay yeah I could see why she was a bit hostile towards me. " Is it really that strange? Am I really such an ass that you think I'm up to something when I'm not insulting you?"

"Yes" she snapped. There wasn't a lot of confidence behind it though. It suddenly clicked that this was her problem and not mine. I knew I'd never understand a women entirely but I knew when they were upset. Something was pissing her off, I assumed it was the incident with Cloud, so she was taking it out on everybody. See, I'm not stupid like everyone thinks I am. I failed 7th grade algebra but I can handle women, which is more than most guys can say.

I chose the words very carefully for my next sentence. " I'm sorry about Cloud okay, but I'm trying to help." I spoke calmly, not taking my eyes off the dish I was drying. The second before I felt it, within my head I saw her hitting me. Then she did. My first reaction: punch her back. Which would have got me no where but fired and probably arrested, and I didn't want. Instead I gingerly touched the place where she had punched me in the back of the head. Man that had hurt! " getting angry at someone who's trying to help you seems like a dumbshit thing to do Miss Lockhart" I said, addressing her formally. I set down the last dish and walked out of the kitchen, motioning for Rude to come.

We went and crawled back into his car, taking back off for the office.

XxX

I sat at my desk, tired, but working. This case was gonna be my big break, I just knew it. This case was gonna get me some respect as a detective, and show people I can do stuff besides break peoples bones.

I was looking over the notes me an Rude compiled when the phone rang. It was three in the morning so I was a bit wary of answering it. I finaly picked it up " Reno and Rude's Detective Service" I called into the phone cheerily. If the person was standing infront of me I probably would have bitten there head off. I was not in the mood to talk to anyone.

"Reno? I didn't expect to get you" it was Tifa.

"Well if you're calling my office who did you expect to get" I replied sarcastically, keeping my faked upbeat tone. I reached out for the half empty tequila bottle and took a swig off it.

"Well…ummm… what I meant was"

"yeah yeah I know what'cha meant. You thought you'd get a machine because every normal person is a sleep at three AM." I could tell she had been hoping for a machine.

"yeah… well…I just wanted to apologies for hitting you earlier. You didn't deserve that."

"and they call me slow."

She ignored that comment. " why are you still at your office at three AM anyway?"

"Tch, where else am I gonna go?"

"home maybe?"

"I live here"

"…" there was a long uncomfortable pause before she finally said " You're kidding right?"

"No, what's to kid about? I live in my office, plenty of people do." Since when was my living situation a big deal to her.

"Yeah people sometimes have offices in their house but they don't have houses inside their office" she said, determined to prove me wrong.

"Guess that makes me special then. I always the odd one ya know."

She sighed exasperatedly and finally said " whatever. That's beside the point. Why are you still up at three AM?"

"Going over case notes, helping myself to a tequila. Why?"

"what case?"

"YOUR CASE!" I snapped. " Why do you have so many questions!?!"

I had expected her to yell at me but she surprised me again. " sorry Reno. I'll leave you to get back to work…" then she hung up.

"God damnit" I cursed and slammed the phone down. I was too tired for this right now. I decided to turn in early by walking over to the beat up sofa by the wall and collapsing on it. I was to tired to bother walking all the way to bed, much less take off my clothes. I'd do more thinking tomorrow, but for now I was thought out.

Ironically most of my thoughts were not on Cloud though, but on Tifa. What was wrong with her?

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

END CHAPTER ONE

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

From the Author: Well I hoped you liked the first chapter to this one. I was much more satisfied with it than the original. For those of you that are wondering the title means ' The Most Deadly Game' in Latin. I sure hope I did a better job on Reno's perspective than I thought I did. I sure hope this fic takes off better than the original version of it, called Diablo's Game. To make sure that people actually like this one I'm going to require 7 reviews before the next chapter goes up. Why 7, because its Final Fantasy VII. I sure do hope I get those 7 reviews, because I already started on the second chapter and its one your not going to want to miss. Lots of action! Anyway I better stop rambling or else my author's note will be longer than the story. Remember 7 reviews :3


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